


Envy: The Safe House

by ChuckTingle



Series: The Seventh Sin [1]
Category: Zanki Zero: Last Beginning (Video Game)
Genre: Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Rope Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:53:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24338437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChuckTingle/pseuds/ChuckTingle
Summary: Ryo Mikajime feels safe when his mother ties him up. When that safety is compromised, Ryo loses faith in everything he once knew.[ Part of my personalSeries of 8 Fucked Up Ficsfor each of the main Zanki characters. Stay tuned for more, but there's no realistic timeframe. ]
Series: The Seventh Sin [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813408
Kudos: 5
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Envy: The Safe House

**Author's Note:**

> AU where ryo's mom doesn't murder-suicide the guy. enjoyyy

When he was bound, Ryo Mikajime felt connected to his mother. She had told him, long ago, that when he was tied on a leash to her, they would always be connected, and ever since that day, he’d been eager to connect with her. She never looked at him much when they were home together, never paid him much attention at all. When she did bother to look at him, it was to yell at him for being a nuisance or stupid. But, he loved his mother. Oh, how he loved her. When he saw her sitting at her vanity, getting ready for a day or night out, he would stand patiently at her side with the rope in hand. He held it loosely, for only she had the power to connect them so strongly. When Ryo held the rope, he was a scared, lonely child. When his mother tied him with it, he didn’t feel so alone. Even when his mother was out on the town, sleeping with whatever man would hold her, he felt safe in the rope’s embrace, for it was her who tied it, and so she was tied to him.

“You know the drill by now, right Ryo?” His mother asked him as she tied the rope around his wrists. She hadn’t always felt the need to bind him so tightly, not originally. First, it was a simple lead tied to the leg of her vanity. Something to keep him safe. Ryo hadn’t been sure at first, how he felt about the new, stronger bonds his mother liked to put him in. In the end, he had decided he didn’t mind. It was worth the discomfort to know he wouldn’t disappoint his mother. He tried hard not to leave the house, but sometimes she would get mad even if she gave him permission. Ryo tried to forgive her for being forgetful; tied up like this, there was no chance he would make a mistake.

“Yes mother. Stay here and stay quiet.” Ryo said softly, and he tested the security of his bound wrists. It was tight, as usual, but he knew it would loosen as time passed. He knew his mother just wanted him to be safe, even if it meant his wrists being rubbed raw and his general discomfort for a few hours. It was a worthy price to pay for the comfort of being loved. Even just a little. Even for a minute.

“Good. I’m hoping to meet with the innkeeper tonight… surely he’s finally ready to ask me out on a date. You’d think I flaunted myself enough…” She sighed, then looked down at Ryo. She held up another piece of rope and smiled at him. He smiled back, always happy to receive joy and positivity from her, and even happier to be safe in her bondage. He wished she would hug him sometimes, or even put her arm around him, but, even in moments like these, she never did. It wasn’t like her to show affection to her kid. He was to stay out of sight, out of mind, and inside the house. “Just a few more, okay? Then you’ll be ready. Oh, I can’t wait to see him, Ryo.”

“I think he likes you, mom,” Ryo said as she tied the rope around his ankles and pulled it tight. “He’s always asking me about you.”

His mother’s eyes flashed for a moment and Ryo tensed, but she didn’t hit him. She huffed and pulled the rope a bit tighter. “Hm. I’m sure he is. He’s always sniffing around you, isn’t he?”

Ryo shrugged. “I think he’s just trying to get close to you, mom! You’ll get him, I know you will!”

His mother ruffled his hair before pulling a third piece of rope out and tying it around the top of Ryo’s knees. “Thank you, Ryo. You’re good for nothing if not stroking my ego…” The words were a little beyond him, at age ten having never been to school, but Ryo figured it was a compliment. It felt good to have her touch his hair, but then she tied the final knot and stood up. He watched her check her hair one last time in the mirror and adjust her hot pink headband. When she was satisfied, she smiled to herself and grabbed her purse, turning towards the door. 

“I’ll be back eventually. You be good.”

“Bye mom!”

The door opened, shut, and he was alone. He exhaled softly and glanced around the room. The house was messy, as usual, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it often was. Maybe that was on account of his mother’s new fling, the innkeeper. She tended to clean up a bit whenever a new man came around. He wished that she would find someone who would actually stick around and take care of them. Maybe the innkeeper was different. It seemed like he cared about her, and even cared about him. Ryo couldn’t remember the last one of his mother’s boyfriends who cared about him… actually, he could. It was the man his mother was seeing who suggested she put him on a leash. The man who had died a few days later.

Maybe they were cursed. Ryo supposed it could be possible. His mother was unable to find anyone more than transient, and Ryo was unable to be the best son possible for his mother. If he didn’t exist, she wouldn’t have to keep hiding him from everyone. She wouldn’t be burdened with another mouth to feed. She wouldn’t have to expend the extra time and energy it took to keep him bound. Keep him safe.

He fidgeted his ankles a bit, curiously, and it seemed as though he was pretty properly secure. It didn’t bother him one bit. Ryo liked the feeling of the rope against his skin. It made him feel his mother’s touch, even when she wouldn’t give it to him. Without being tied down, he would simply be a loose end. A liability. Instead, he was here. Safe. Alone.

Time passed, as it always did. Ryo got bored. He played games with the junk in the room. How many red things could he find? How many blue? What chores could he take care of later when his mother finally let him go? He kept his mind active so as not to succumb to infinite boredom, but then again… he was used to this. She tied him up like this at least a few times a week. It was better that way. He often needed to remind himself of that.

Eventually, Ryo heard the sound of footsteps beyond the door to their room. Had his mother returned early? His heart pounded in his chest; if she had, it couldn’t possibly be a good thing. It would mean that the innkeeper had disappointed her, stood her up, or rejected her, and that would mean she was in a bad mood. He loved her, but he couldn’t stand when she was angry with him. She got mean and cruel when she was angry. She tied him way too tight when she was angry.

The footsteps in the hallway stopped outside the door and Ryo adjusted his position so that he could look at it. If it was his mom, he would need to prepare for the worst. The lock clicked, the door swung open... and the innkeeper walked through it.

Ryo blinked, remaining silent, and the innkeeper looked at him with his mouth agape, processing just exactly what he was seeing. Ryo’s mother had told him that no one could know of the way she kept him safe… if anyone found out, child protective services would take him away and they would never get to be together again. Ryo desperately didn’t want that.

“Well, well, well… isn’t this interesting,” said the innkeeper, eyeing Ryo with a bemused smirk. “What are you doing there, Ryo? Did your mother do that to you?”

Unable to get away with being silent, but unsure of what to say, Ryo began stammering. “I- I, uh, no, I… I like it. It’s to keep me safe.”

The innkeeper exhaled through his nose and shook his head, reeling with disbelief. “You like it, huh? Of course you do. I see now why I was so drawn to you in the first place… I was looking for your mother, but this was an unexpected surprise.”

“P- Please Mr. Innkeeper,” Ryo begged. “Don’t tell anyone about this. I- If she finds out you saw, she’s going to get really mad, and–”

“Oh, Ryo...” The innkeeper’s voice took on a soft, caring tone, and for a moment, Ryo was soothed. He walked over to the bed on which Ryo was tied and sat down next to him, putting an arm around his tense shoulders. “I’m not going to tell anyone anything, okay? Your secret is safe with me.”

Ryo relaxed, exhaling in relief and turning his head to smile up at the innkeeper. “Thank you, mister. I really appreciate it.”

“Of course, of course,” the innkeeper assured, stroking Ryo’s shoulder in a way the child interpreted as comforting. “Though, I think it’s only fair that we make a deal.”

“A deal?” Ryo tilted his head.

“Yeah, something in exchange for my silence. Sound good?”

Ryo frowned. “That’s a little rude of you, Mr. Innkeeper. You know we’re poor. Look around. This is all we have.”

The innkeeper did, indeed, look around. There was a lot of clutter, but Ryo was thankful that there weren’t any bags of trash or rotting food around that particular day. It would have been horribly embarrassing.

“Oh, but I’m not looking for any of your possessions,” the innkeeper said, squeezing Ryo tightly and pulling him against his chest. “I’m thinking… you.”

“M- Me?” Ryo stuttered. He was terribly confused–– what could he possibly offer the innkeeper? He was just a child. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, that’s alright…” said the innkeeper, gazing over Ryo’s body. That rubbed Ryo the wrong way, and despite it going against everything he knew to be true, he was beginning to pick up on what was going on. The innkeeper lifted up Ryo’s shirt and rubbed his chest, lecherously groaning from deep in the throat. “I’m sure you’ll understand what to do.”

“Wh- What do you think you’re doing?” Ryo said, squirming under the man’s touch. For the first time in his life, Ryo did not feel safe in bondage. He desperately wished for his hands to be free, for his legs to be able to kick the man holding him. “Stop that! What the hell! You’re with my mom! She- She’s gonna be so mad at me...”

“Ha, she and I were never serious, anyway… I was only using her to get to you…” The innkeeper groped at his chest a little more, violating Ryo’s body with his cold hands. Ryo grunted and tried to push him away with his bound hands, but the innkeeper held him tighter, digging his fingers into Ryo’s shoulder. It felt terrible, like the tight ropes his mother fancied when she was mad, but this man wasn’t his mother, and he didn’t seem mad. In fact, he seemed excited.

Ryo opened his mouth to yell for help, but he hesitated… What would happen if someone found him here like this? He wouldn’t know how to explain it. They’d arrest mom and take him away, throwing him in some home with a bunch of other kids. He didn’t know how he would live on his own… but, then again, he was alone now. Even in the ropes his mother tied him in, he was alone, so why did it even matter? What had he been believing in for so long?

“Help! Someone help me!” Ryo screamed at the top of his lungs, flailing around. “He–” 

The innkeeper slapped a fat, sweaty hand over Ryo’s mouth, still gripping him by the shoulder with the other. “Shut up, kid! What the hell are you doing? I thought we had a deal.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal!” Ryo yelled, muffled by the innkeeper’s hand.

“Be a brat and you’re gonna regret it, kid. Now shut up or I snap your arm right now.”

That shut him up. Ryo was more terrified than he had ever felt, even after his mother threw things or hit him. Where was his mother? If she was ever here, maybe she could have helped him. Maybe she could have saved him. She wasn’t here. His mother was _never_ here when he needed her, and he knew now he had never been safe.

The innkeeper pulled Ryo’s shirt up over his head and Ryo felt tears welling up in his eyes. This was it. This was the end of everything he’d ever believed in. It was the end of safety, of the delusion of his mother’s love, of what little innocence he had left. The innkeeper’s heavy hands pawed at him and he tried to pretend it wasn’t happening, that his mother hadn’t _let_ this happen, but he couldn’t, and she had. All these lies about protection. Bondage keeping him safe. He had never felt more unsafe in his life, tied prone in the hands of a cruel, terrible man.

As the innkeeper pulled his pants down to where the ropes tied off his knees, Ryo wondered if she knew. His mother had alluded before, to the way the innkeeper looked at him instead of looking at her. She was jealous. Jealous of her own son for “stealing” the man she was trying so hard to court. Did this mean she knew what the innkeeper was capable of? What his end goal was? If she married him, would that mean… he would do this every day?

Ryo unleashed the tears that had been building since it all began. The innkeeper hesitated and wiped a few of them away, again ruffling that thick dark green hair of his. “There, there, Ryo… I know this seems scary, but I bet you’ll like it. Do you know what it feels like to be touched there?”

Ryo didn’t want to know. He wanted his mother. He wanted to be free, not bound. Old, not young. He wanted everything that was happening to stop. He wanted this moment in time to be erased. Wasn’t that possible, somehow? It had to be. He needed it to be. _This_ simply could not be.

Then, the door opened.

The innkeeper froze, his hand mere millimeters from the boy’s crotch, and Ryo felt something rush over him–– was it fear, or was it hope?

“Ryo? Ryo, that godforsaken man was nowhere to be found… you’d think I’d have stood a chance if I only just––”

That’s when she saw it, dropping the phone in her hands and letting her pocketbook slide off her arm onto the floor. There, on her own bed, was her son in the arms of her lover. Ryo stared, wide-eyed, at his mother, unable to gauge her reaction as she stood silently and in shock. The innkeeper knew he had been caught, and he pushed Ryo off his lap unceremoniously, like a sack of garbage. He lifted his hands over his head and let out an anxious laugh.

“Ah, Ritsuko… I didn’t expect you would be here.”

“Clearly.” She muttered, eyes dark and fixated only on the man who addressed her. Ryo’s fear was beginning to dissipate… it seemed as though his mother wasn’t mad at him. There was no jealousy in her expression, no lovesick despair–– only cold disgust directed toward the man who’d been molesting her son. “Do you understand what you’ve done? Do you understand what you’ve done to me?”

“I– Ritsuko, I swear, I was only…”

“Cut the crap!” Ryo’s mother yelled, balling her hands into fists. Ryo took this time to inch further and further away from the man on the bed. The innkeeper was sweating, now, rubbing his hands together in a nervous fervor. His mother jabbed a finger in his face and screamed, “You were trying to _fuck_ my son! You think you can possibly get away with that?”

“Please!” The innkeeper collapsed off the bed and onto his knees, clasping his hands together. “Please don’t report me to the police. I– I have a record, and if I go to jail, I’ll––”

“Police?” Ritsuko’s voice took on a cool, calm tone and she crossed her arms, shaking her head. “Oh, no. There’s no need to get the police involved.” She reached her hand down to her thigh as though she had an itch.

“Oh, oh thank goodness. Ritsuko, I’m sorry…”

“...The police will not give you what you deserve.” From a garter around her thigh, Ritsuko drew a small but sharp dagger. The innkeeper paled.

“What… what are you doing?” He said, lowering his arms and holding them out defensively. “There’s… there’s no need to get angry.”

“Isn’t there?” She asked, quirking her head unnaturally to the side. Ryo didn’t recognize the look in his mother’s eyes. It was an anger he had never seen before, not even when she was upset and squeezing him with the ropes. Who was this woman? A woman who cared for him. A woman who would defend him and come to his rescue. Surely, that woman could not be his mother. She stepped towards the innkeeper slowly as she spoke: “I have been using this knife against men like you as long as I can remember… you all want the same thing: gratification. And you’ll step on anyone– you’ll _use_ anyone to get it… Me? I can handle being used. But _nobody_ uses my son except me.”

Despite the obvious dig at him, Ryo was taken aback by her words. She really was standing up for him! It had seemed impossible, that he’d been living a delusional lie for his entire life… but here she was, taking arms against the cruel man who’d taken advantage of him.

“R- Ritsuko! Please!”

“Shut up!” She yelled, slashing at him with the knife. A deep gash opened in the side of the innkeeper’s face and he cried out.

“Please, please!” he begged, crying in fear and desperation, “Ritsuko, please, I’ll do anything!” Ryo scowled at his pathetic display and just wished his mother would… well, he wished she would end him, already. He had no remorse for a man who cried because he couldn’t get away with his cowardly display of sexual cruelty. Even Ryo hadn’t begged.

Ritsuko turned toward Ryo and smiled, but even in its softness, the macabre glint in her eyes was still there. He looked at her expectantly and smiled back. She held her knife to the innkeeper’s throat.

“Ryo, darling… I would like very much if you would look away. It would be… terrible if you had to see something like this.”

Ryo nodded and shut his eyes. In the moments that passed, Ryo heard a symphony of horror. He heard the innkeeper’s screams and pleas for her mercy. He heard his mother grunt with the strain as she stabbed him again and again, even after the innkeeper’s pleading had stopped.

“You fucking pervert! Disgusting piece of shit! You _dare_ lay your hands on my son!”

And then, it was over. The only sound now was of his mother’s heavy breathing. Unsure if he should open his eyes, Ryo simply breathed as well. It settled from its adrenaline-fueled hyperventilation into a calmer, more relaxed pattern of deep breaths in and out. He was safe now, tied up alone with his mother. He was safe. Upon realizing this, he decided to open his eyes.

It was a grim scene, by any count imaginable. The innkeeper’s body lay mangled on the floor. His esophagus was deeply torn and his face and chest had multiple jab wounds and lacerations. Ryo’s heartbeat quickened again. Even knowing how horrible the innkeeper had been, seeing him dead struck Ryo in a way he couldn’t have expected. Still reeling from the gravity of the scene, he looked up, seeking comfort, to his mother.

She stood over the barely-recognizable corpse, staring with unbound cruelty at her handiwork. So this is what it looked like. This is what happened when his mother tried to protect him from the worst thing that had ever happened to him… or… was it the worst thing? He watched his blood-stained mother holding the knife, cruel malice in her eyes, and....

Suddenly, his mother didn’t look like his mother anymore. Someone unknown, someone foggy replaced her, but he recognized one thing. Just one. Thin, oval-shaped glasses. And then, she was back. Ryo blinked, shaken by the… was it a memory? How could it have been? He didn’t know anyone who looked like that. Even so, he could not shake the feeling that something like this had happened before... but if not to him, to who?

Ryo shuddered, but his mother dropped the knife and ran over to him, wrapping him in a full-body hug. This sensation was completely new to Ryo, and he almost entirely forgot just how awful the whole thing had been. His mother was hugging him. He was safe in her arms. Whoever the innkeeper had been before, he was no longer… he would never hurt a young child again.

“Oh, Ryo… I’m so sorry, Ryo…” She cried on his shoulder, squeezing him tightly as though she were terrified to let go. “I thought it was you! I thought you were seducing him, Ryo, I… I swear, I must have gone mad…”

“It’s… it’s okay, mom,” Ryo managed, closing his eyes and immersing himself in the feeling of her arms around him. “I’m okay… you saved me, mom. He didn’t hurt me.”

“Listen, Ryo.” His mother quickly let go of him and began untying her son’s bonds. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

“Wh- What do you mean?” Ryo looked around the room. This had _finally_ started to feel like home, and now they had to move again.

“I killed the owner, Ryo,” his mother muttered, undoing the final knot and letting all the ropes fall loosely around him. “If they catch me, I’m a goner. We have to skip town. Fill a bag with only your most important stuff, okay, Ryo? Then, we’re leaving. Quickly.”

Ryo stared at her, still processing everything that had happened. Ritsuko sighed and whacked him in the head, not too hard, but enough to jolt him out of his stupor. 

“Don’t just stand there, idiot! Move!”

The two scrambled around their small inn room and gathered everything that mattered enough to them to keep. His mom grabbed her makeup, her clothes, and some food. Ryo had only one thing that mattered enough to him–– the rope. Having shoved all they could carry into two garbage bags, Ritsuko took Ryo by the hand and they left the crime scene behind them. Where they were going, he didn’t know… but he was with his mother, and as long as they were together, Ryo Mikajime would always be safe.


End file.
